1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to user interactive computer supported display technology and more particularly to such user interactive systems and methods which are user friendly and provide easy to use interactive user interfaces.
2. Description of the Related Art
The 1990""s decade has been marked by a technological revolution driven by the convergence of the data processing industry with the consumer electronics industry. This advance has been even further accelerated by the extensive consumer and business involvement in the internet over the past few years. As a result of these changes, it seems as if virtually all aspects of human endeavor in the industrialized world requires the distribution of information through interactive computer display interfaces. Information for reporting, marketing, technology and educational purposes, which in the past was permitted days and even months for distribution, are now customarily required to be xe2x80x9con-linexe2x80x9d in a matter of hours and even minutes. The electronic documents through which such information is distributed is made up of a variety of information types, e.g. text, graphics, photographs and even more complex image types. Because of the limited time factors involved in the creation, updating and reading of computer displayed documents, there is a need for a method and system for navigating through these documents which are fast and relatively effective.
For example, the conventional method of allowing a user to view very large sets of data in tree, table or list formats is to display every item in the list. The user is then provided with a scroll bar that moves a small window in a vertical direction. At any time, however, only a very small segment of the tree or list is displayed. Thus, in order for a user to view an entire structure of a large data set, the user has to scroll through the entire list of data. Even then, however, the user may not be able to visualize the whole structure of the data set.
A method and system to provide a user the ability to potentially view an entire structure of a large list of data on a view screen were devised. For instance, the method entailed compressing the items on the list to such an extent as to have all the items displayed on the screen. To achieve this feat, however, only one row of pixels was used to represent each item on the list. Obviously, this amount of compression did not allow the items to be legible or quite recognizable. Thus, a need exists for a method of quickly making legible or recognizable any item of interest on that fully compressed list without reconstructing all the other items.
The need is addressed by the present invention. Each item on the list is made up of a plurality of rows of pixels. When the list is fully compressed, each item is displayed by displaying only one row of pixels. The invention allows for the use of a pointer to expand one item in the list. For example, when the pointer touches the first character of an item, the item is expanded by displaying every other row of pixels of the item. If the pointer touches more than one character of the item then the item will be fully expanded by having all of its rows of pixels displayed.